Analogue Communique. Thinking and Practice 2.

In week two of the Thinking and Practice, Analogue Communique Process and Production session we were expected to:

1. Re-scale and re-think our ideas.
2. Explore Drawings by enlarging, defining and refining them.

After looking at my designs from the first week, I decided that I wanted to develop my next few designs digitally.

I was aiming for a kind of "fuzzy" style because while i'm using the phrase "I am fine", the three words in it can mean one of two things as a lot of people use this phrase to try and disguise the fact that they are not. 

Layer 1.

Layer 2.

Layer 3.

I created my digital development simply by copying the same layer and overlapping them, then just simply changing the colours of the text on each layer. I also offset them from each other and adjusted the opacity of the different layers to achieve the "fuzzy" look i was aiming for. 

After I was happy with the look of my design, I then went on to deciding on which orientation i preferred. 

Landscape.

Portrait.

I decided that I much prefer the Portrait design, so I went on to enlarging each of the letters.

"I"

"A"

"M"

"F"

"N"

"E"

I'm really happy with my designs so far, and cannot wait to develop them further.

Manifesto response: First things First.

In Rob's seminar today, we were reading through the re-written manifesto "First things First 2000" and discussing as a group how we felt towards it, what we thought the writer meant by it and how we would write a manifesto in response.

The notes that we made after reading though this manifesto were quite negative really.

I personally highlighted several sections and wrote what I personally thought about the manifesto to the side:

1. "Designers then apply their skill...to sell dog biscuits,.." 

I felt like this was saying that as designers, all we do, is design to sell.

2. "Many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do."

I thought this was saying that as a collective as designers, we've just come to terms that this is what we do and what we will and always will do. However, i think that isn't necessarily true, each individual designer has a bigger picture of how important their job is.

3. "The profession's time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best."

Yes, we supply demand for things that aren't always necessary, but that doesn't mean that our main game is to only design something that you may not even need. Can we not involve a fun side to design, and do what we love because we can?

As a group, in our seminar we discussed how we all felt about this, and we came up with these different bullet points about what we came up with:

A) Commercial work should co-exist with more creative, ethical and experimental practice.

B) There is a need for the market to exist and innovate

C) Worthy causes don't guarantee a satisfying creative process

D) It's a rant with a negative tone.

E) "Heart"? 

F) We need a profession - a place - what motivates us?

G) We feel as if we are not important compared to other professions- insulted.

Conversation Development.

As I'm getting closer toward finalising my board game, I've created four quick designs for each area of my game; Acting, Humming, Word Association and Drawing. 

Acting.

Humming.

Word Association.

Drawing.

I'm really pleased with my designs, I think they are kind of cute, yet gentle with a strong, effective way to drawing in the attention of children with ADHD to the playing a board game.

Character Design and Development. (3)

This week, our aim was to create hand drawn animation, using Photoshop. Looking back at the 12 principles of animation, this week we only used; principle 1, 2 and 3.

1. Timing and Spacing.

2. Squash and Stretch.

3. Anticipation and Staging.

After reminding ourselves what each of these three principles are about we went on to experimenting with these thoughts and we created our own hand drawn animation of a bouncing ball.

test1720p from Emma Perrett on Vimeo.

 After experimenting with the "bouncing ball" I went on and developed my Character Design from my previous session into a hand drawn animation.

Here are some screen shots of the different stages of my animation.

 

Gymnast Final from Emma Perrett on Vimeo.

I am quite proud of the final outcome of this hand drawn animation as it was my first time working with this technique.

Conversation - My Game's Rules.

After a lot of researching into a lot of board games that already exist, I've written up my own rules for my own board game. 

Conversation - Game Research.

After deciding I wanted to make a board game in relation helping kids with ADHD keeping up their concentration, I went on to researching board games that already exist.

There are a few a games here that I found and I really like the look of. I think the colours work really well in their packaging; the bright and bold assets stand out really well.

Rules for "Say Anything":

Say Anything was designed by Dominic Crapuchettes and Satish Pillalamarri, and was published in 2008. The game can be played by 3-8 players but is recommended to be played by 4-8 players. The user suggested ages are age 10 and up.

Say Anything is a light-hearted game about what you and your friends think. It gives you the chance to settle questions that have been hotly debated for centuries. For instance, “What is the most overrated band of all time?” or “Which celebrity would be the most fun to hang out with for a day?” So dig deep into your heart of just come up with something witty – this is your chance to Say Anything! 

How to play:

Ask a question from the card you draw. E.g.:

If you could have a “BIG” anything, what would it be?

What’s the most important invention of the last century?

Which website would be hardest to live without?

What’s the best activity for a first date?

What’s the worst thing to say to a cop after getting pulled over?

Everyone else writes an answer and throws it face-up on the table as fast as possible. No duplicate answers are allowed!

Secretly choose your favourite response using genuine state of the art SELECT-O-MATIC 5000 (see pictures)

Everyone else has two betting tokens to bet on which answer your chose. They can bet both tokens on one answer or split them between two different answers (Just like in Wits & Wagers).

Rules for "Wits and Wager":

Wits and Wager was also designed by Dominic Crapuchettes and published in 2005.  The game can be played by 3-7 players but is recommended to be played with 4-7 players. The user suggested ages are 8 and up.

Not a trivia buff? It doesn’t matter! In Wits and Wagers, each player writes a guess to a question such as “In what year did the bikini swimsuit makes its first appearance?” or “How many feet wide is an NFL football field?” and places it face-up on the betting mat. Think you know the answer? Bet on your guess. Think you know who the experts are? Bet on their guess. The closest answer pays out according to the odds on the betting mat.

Strike it big and you’ll be cheering like you just hit the jackpot!

Wits and Wagers is a trivia game that lets you bet on anyone’s answer. So you can win by making educated guesses, by playing the odds, or knowing the interests of your friends. It can be taught in 2 minutes, played in 25 minutes and accommodates up to 20 people in teams.

Rules for "Balderdash":

Balderdash was designed by Laura Robinson and Paul Toyne and was published in 1984. The game can be played with 2-6 players but is recommended with 4-6+ players. The user suggested ages are age 12 and up.

Balderdash is a clever repackaging of the parlour game “Dictionary”, Balderdash contains several cards with real words nobody has heard of. After one of those words has been read aloud, players try to come up with definitions that at least sound plausible, because points are later awarded for every opposing player who guessed that your definition was the correct one.

Rules for "Apples to Apples":

Apples to Apples was designed by Matthew Kirby and Mark Alan Osterhaus and was published in 1999. The game can be played by 4-10 players but is recommended to be played by 4-10+ players. The user suggested ages are age 12 and up. 

The party game Apples to Apples consist of two decks of cards: Things and Descriptions. Each round, the active player draws a Description card (Which features an adjective like “Hairy” or “Smarmy”) from the deck, then the other players each secretly chose the Thing card in hand that best matches that description and plays it face-down on the table. The active player then reveals these cards and chooses the Thing card that, in his opinion, best matches the Description card, which he awards to whoever played that Thing card. This player becomes the new active player for the next round.

Once a player has won a pre-determined number of Description cards, that player wins.

Rules for "Loaded Questions":

Loaded Questions was designed by Eric Poses and was published in 1997. The game can be played by 3-6 players but is recommended to be played by 4-6+ players. The user suggested ages are age 13 and up.

“If you were invisible, where would you go?”

“If you could be a member of any TV-sitcom family, what would you choose?”

Rated one of the hottest new board games by USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle and Games Magazine, Loaded Question is the hilarious new board game that tests players on how well they know each other with over 500 fun personality-filled questions.

Rules for "Cranium":

Cranium was designed by Whit Alexander and Richard Tait and was published in 1998. The game can be played by 4-16 players but is recommended to be played by 4-12, 14-16 players. The user suggested ages are age 13 and up.

Cranium bills itself as the “whole-brain” game. It’s a party game that borrows from a host of other popular games of recent times. Players have to successfully complete activities in each of four sections to win:

Creative Cat: A player must clue a word to his or her teammates by drawing it, sculpting it in clay, or drawing it with his or her eyes closed.

Data Head: A variety of trivia questions.

Word Worm: Players unscramble words, spell challenging words, guess definitions, identify words with letters left out, or spell words backwards.

Star performer: Players must whistle a song, impersonate a celebrity, or act out a clue.

Cranium has elements similar to those of Pictionary, Charades, Trivial Pursuit, Celebrities, Huggermugger, Claymania, etc.

Rules for "Equate":

Equate was designed by Mary Kay Beavers and was published in 1996. 2-4 players can play the game. The user suggested ages are age 8 and up. 

“Scrabble with Math” is how the game is generally described, and the description is apt. The board is much like a scrabble board, including spaces equivalent to “double-word score” and “triple-letter score”. The difference is that, instead of placing words formed of letters, players Equate place equations formed of numbers and symbol on the board. The beginners game (consisting mostly of addition and subtraction of integers) is pretty simple, but the standard game, bringing in multiplication, division, and fractions, can be something of a brain-burner.

Rules for "Carcassonne":

Carcassonne was designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and was published in 2000. 2-5 players can take part in playing this game and the user suggested ages are age 8 and up.

Carcassonne is a tile-placement game in which the players draw and place a tile with a piece of southern French landscape on it. The tile might feature a city, a road, a cloister, grassland or some combination thereof, and it must be placed adjacent to tiles that have already been played, in such a way that cities are connected to cities, roads to roads, etc. Having placed a tile, the player can then decide to place one of his meeples on one of the areas on it: on the city as a knight, on the road as a robber, on a cloister as a monk, or on the grass as a farmer. When that area is complete, that meeple scores points for its owner.

During a game of Carcassonne, players are faced with decisions like: “Is it really worth putting my last meeple there?” or “Should I use this tile to expand my city, or should I place it near my opponent instead, giving him a hard time to complete his project and score points?” Since players place only one tile and have the option to place one meeple on it, turns proceed quickly even if it is a game full of options and possibilities.

Conversation Plan.

Research - Conversation with difficulties.

Conversation with difficulties.   

Sometimes it is more about the way we say things that matter rather than what we say to people.

ADHD

Common ADHD social errors include;

• Interrupting
• Talking too much
• Talking too fast
• Going off track
• Not paying attention
• Not maintaining balance in relationships
• Impulsively blurting out words that would be better left unsaid
• Not being reliable 
• Inappropriate body language 

PRAGMATIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTS

Pragmatic language impairment, is an impairment in understanding pragmatic aspects of language.

Pragmatics involve three major communication skills: 

a. Using language

• Greeting (E.G, hello, goodbye),
• Informing (E.G, I’m going to get a cookie),
• Demanding (E.g, Give me a cookie),
• Promising (E.G, I’m going to get you a cookie),
• Requesting (E.G, I would like a cookie, please)

b. Changing language

• Talking differently to a baby than to an adult
• Giving background information to an unfamiliar listener
• Speaking differently in a classroom than on a playground

c. Following rules

• Taking turns in conversation
• Introducing topics of conversation
• Staying on topic
• Rephrasing when misunderstood
• How to use verbal and nonverbal signals
• How close to stand to someone when speaking 
• How to use facial expressions and eye contact

An individual with pragmatic problems may:

• Say inappropriate or unrelated things during conversations
• Tell stories in a disorganised way
• Have little variety in language use.

Pragmatic disorders often coincide with other language problems such as vocabulary development or grammar. 

Pragmatic problems can lower social acceptance and peers may avoid having conversations with an individual with a pragmatic disorder.

LEARNING STRATEGIES

Children with language difficulties can be completely unaware of their own thinking and learning processes. They do not know that there are certain strategies that can be used to help them learn, or that they could be using the wrong strategies for their specific learning style.

Different learning styles include: 

a. Visual Learners

• Learn well by listening and communicating with others
• Want to see how things are done
• Enjoy poster, visual overhead, colours
• Learn well from videos
• Doodle and draw
• Work well with information mapping systems (e.g. Mind maps)
• Picture well (visualise) inside their heads

b. Auditory learners

• Learn well by listening and communication with others
• Learn through rhythm and rhyme
• Learn from audio tapes
• Have good auditory discrimination for sounds and auditory attack skills for reading
• Learn languages easily

c. Kinaesthetic learners

• Use their hands and whole bodies to learn
• Create things, make things, pull things apart and rebuild them
• Use their feelings

d. Print-orientated learners

• Read to learn and for pleasure
• Have good reading comprehension
• Write well and write for pleasure

e. Interactive learners

• Learn well by interacting with others
• Learn from discussion
• Group work and co-operative learning
• Have and ability to lead, follow and be flexible socially

HEARING IMPAIRMENTS

A sensorineural hearing loss can result in three different communication difficulties.

The communication difficulties in a patient with sensorineural 

hearing loss will occur but with varying degrees.

• Loss of sensitivity.

With loss of sensitivity you have difficulties hearing soft speech. soft sounds have to be made louder in order to be heard, and turning up the television or speaking a bit louder may compensate for a mild loss of sensitivity.

• loss of high frequencies

Hearing-impaired people have problems hearing high frequencies constants such as s,t,f,p,k and combinations of all constants such as th and sh, all of which can make it very difficult for hearing-impaired people to understand a conversation.

• discrimination loss

Discrimination loss make it difficult for them to understand speech in noisy surroundings. they may do well in quiet one-to-one situations, but will have problems with their hearing in cases where  there is background noise. the noise ‘masks’ or covers speech sounds.

SIGN LANGUAGE

British Sign Language is the first or preferred language of some deaf people in the U.K; there are 125,00 deaf adults in the U.K who use BSL plus and estimated 20,000 children. in 2011, 15,000 people living in England and Wales, reported themselves using BSL as their main language. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head. Many thousands of people who are not deaf also use BSL, as hearing relatives of deaf people, Sign Language Interpreters or as a result of other contact with the British Deaf Community. 

Advantages of sign language:

• Knowing sign language gives you an insight to an entirely different culture indigenous to your home country.
• If you have a sore throat or laryngitis, you don’t need to speak to communicate (assuming you teach you friends and family to sign)
• sign languages are logical yet creative
• sign languages are beautiful languages with a rich culture and history which allows people to see the world in a new, visual way.

Disadvantages of sign language:

• Not everyone knows how to sign, although not everybody knows how to speak French either.
• You have to be in line of sight, you can’t have a conversation in sign language when a person is in another room, or while watching television or doing crafts or other things that require you to look away.

DYSLEXIA

Specific Learning difficulties affect the way information is processed. These difficulties a neurological which usually run in the family and most definitely occur independently from intelligence, however they can have significant impacts on education and learning.

Dyslexia is a hidden disability thought to affect around 10% of the population. Dyslexia affects the way in which information is processed, stored and retrieved, with problems of memory, speed of processing, time perception, organisation and so on. some people may even have difficulty navigation a route left and right compass directions. I can imagine these difficulties with dyslexia will take its toll on the way people who struggle with them, communicate with others; living in fear of being judged by someone who may see these things as “easy”. 

reinforce things several times over to make sure things are crystal clear.

Paddington Bear Animation

I used Illustrator first to quickly design my Paddington Bear, creating every part of the bear on a different layer, so that when I transferred it over to After Effects it would be easy to animate the different sections of my character. 

This is my Paddington Bear character that I created using Illustrator.

Once I'd finished drawing Paddington, I opened up After Effects creating a composition with a width of 1920px and a height of 1080px. Then I imported my little bear over retaining all layer sizes to allow me to animate them separately. I then decided which part of him I wanted to animate, coming to the conclusion that I only wanted his hat and his two hands to move. 

Before I could start properly animating, I had to sort out my "Parent" layers. So to make sure the hat stayed near the head, I attached the hat layer to the head layer etc.. Once I had sorted all that out I went on to making my characters hat and hands "wriggle"

When coding in the wriggler effect, you open the layer you want to use i.e. the hat or the hand layers. Then, while holding down the ALT key, click on the specific transition clock you want (personally I wanted to use "rotation" or "position") and then you type "wriggle(5,10)", for example. The first number in the brackets represents the frequency and the last number represents the magnitude of the movement you're about to create.

After I had added the wriggler effect to how I wanted it to look on each of the layers, that was my animation done. However, to make my Paddington look a little more interesting, I added a texture into his coat. 

This is the image that I used to create the texture on Paddington's coat.

Then finally to make my animation look even more visual, i decided I wanted to add a background. After realising that the texture on his coat made him look like he was about to go to a disco, I did a quick google search for disco backgrounds.

I think this background ties my whole animation together and I'm rather proud of my outcome from today's After Effects tutorial.

Paddington Bear animation from Emma Perrett on Vimeo.

Analogue Communique. Thinking and Practice.

Analogue communique is all about creating hand rendered typography to communicate a message. Using characters within a specific format, we were asked to be creative with our approach to typography and lettering. This is an opportunity to be experimental and playful with ideas and approach, within a prosaic structure. Although the initial output will be physical, there will be scope for ideas to be developed digitally into animation. Adding time as a tool to the project creates another area for play which offers many other solutions. We will be asked to consider the individual letter forms as part of a communicated message, but also as a graphic symbol, pictorially, as a character, or as shape. A good project here will be one where we attempt to experiment as much as possible, try new things and enjoy exploring a simple aesthetic. Although the majority of the brief initially requires creating images on paper, good drawing technique is by no means an advantage, and this brief will be judged on the our willingness to play with ideas and the endeavour shown therein.

In this lesson we were expected to;
1. Decide on our chosen message.
2. Generate thumbnails of initial ideas.
3. Work to a preferred potential layout.

"I am fine" - what is thought to be one of the most common lies ever told.

"Fine" is such a bland word that, I think, a lot of people use it to glamourise the fact they're not. 

I think will this brief, I want to create an animation using the phrase "I am fine" to try and demonstrate the double meaning of it.

"I AM FINE" 1.

"I AM FINE" 2.

"I AM FINE" 3.

"I AM FINE" 4.

These are my four different experiments using different type styles. I want it to look as simple as possible, because it's quite a delicate subject. However, I really love the last two designs I made. I think they stick to my planned simplicity, yet hold a little more depth, intriguing an audience. 

For inspiration for my last two ideas I looked at the book "Hand Job" by Michael Perry.